Lake Phalen SkiSparks Club

This is a perfect club for kids and adults new to nordic skiing. We want to extend a warm invite particularly to families of color. This is a new club and we’d love for our club to be representative of our multicultural eastside community!

Equipment

We want to make it easy for your family to learn to ski! We have scholarships available to assist with the registration fee. We also offer quality rental equipment for a low fee ($55/pair of skis). You can reserve rental equipment during the registration process. We will distribute equipment in early December and collect it in the spring.That means that your children can take their equipment home and ski whenever they want! 

2024 Schedule and Location

Meet at Phalen Park Golf Course Saturdays at 1pm. Our first club meeting is Saturday, January 6.  Our last club meeting is Saturday, March 2. Level 1 meets for 1 hour; all other levels meet for 1.5 hours.

We meet at the parking lot of the Lakeside Grill. The address is: 1615 Phalen Drive, St. Paul MN 55106

Clothing

Dress warmly, but dress to move! Having the right clothing will go a long way in your child’s enjoyment of skiing this season. We will be playing lots of games to help skiers heat up. It's easy to remove layers if your skier becomes too warm. Take into account your child’s activity level and the outside temperature & wind chill when getting dressed.

Suggested layers:

• Base layer (underwear layer) wicks sweat off your skin: polypropylene or lightweight wool long underwear top and bottoms (avoid cotton or cotton blends)

• Middle layer (insulating layer) retains body heat to protect you from the cold: a second long-underwear top, a long-sleeve (non-cotton) t-shirt or a lightweight fleece

• Outer layer (shell layer) shields you from wind and snow: heavy fleece or jacket on top and fleece pants/leggings or snow pants

Other tips for staying warm:

Wool socks: Invest in a pair of wool (or non-cotton wool-alternative) socks that come up to mid-calf. A dry pair of socks needs to be put on right before you put on your boots. 

Dry boots: Cold, wet boots are no fun to put on. Bring ski boots in from the car and let them dry out between uses. Before driving to SkiSparks, have your kids put their boots on at home where it's warm.

Cover the head, ears and neck: Put on a hat (that covers the ears) and a neck warmer. We lose a lot of heat through our heads, but making sure your ears and neck are covered is just as important.

Mittens/gloves: Mittens will keep fingers warmer than gloves.

Hand/Foot warmers: For when it is really cold, hand and foot warmers are helpful. These are oxygen activated and you can “turn them off” by putting them in an airtight container (such as a jam jar) to get multiple uses. 

Calories: A skier who is low on calories will have a hard time staying warm. Bringing snacks and drinks is always a good idea.

Important to Know

• Volunteers and Coaches – Will be wearing MyXC coach bibs in the level color they coach.

• First Day – Each coach will have a ski bib and name tag (with parent contact information) for your child.  We will collect the bibs at the last lesson.

• Weather –  If the forecast is very cold or cold with wind chill (-2 degrees air temperature or -10 degrees windchill), we’ll cancel. We may shorten lessons on very cold days (below 5 degrees air temperature or 10 degrees windchill). Cancellations will be noted via email to all members by 8am Saturday.

Volunteering

We highly encourage parents to volunteer - on skis, in boots, or from home! There are many ways to help support the club. Kids with family support are most likely to be successful. Review the volunteer roles on the MyXC website and contact us at lakephalen@myxc.org to sign up or to discuss how you can help. 

Coaching

Please consider coaching as it is our number one need!  It is also one of the most rewarding ways in which you can help our club. Coaches do not need to be highly skilled skiers to volunteer as a coach. What you need most is an interest in working with children and sharing your love of skiing with them.

The MyXC program makes it easy to be a coach. We provide training for coaches and a SkiSparks Curriculum app with daily plans for each club session. The curriculum is game-based with lots of helpful tips to keep lessons fun. 

If you have a friend or family member who would make a great coach, (or other volunteer position) please send them our way!

Junior Coaches

High-school aged skiers, we need you!  We love the enthusiasm that high school volunteers bring to our club. Come be a hero to a kid learning to ski! 

Assistant and Substitute Coaches

As an assistant coach, you support a coach by accompanying the group on the trails and helping skiers.  If you feel like your skiing level is at the same level as the level your kids are signed up for, you would be a fantastic assistant coach!  You are not in charge of the instruction, rather you are there to make sure the kids are safe, and can assist with activities.  

If you are a substitute coach, you can fill in when a coach isn’t able to make it to a club session. 

Communications

We communicate with Lake Phalen MyXC families via email.  Please contact us with questions and feedback at lakephalen@myxc.org.